Netscape
VS Internet Explorer
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Here's the simple answer ... use them all. Okay, so that wasn't what you wanted to hear ... but it is also the reality of Web development. How can I get around it ... sorry ... at this time and place ... you really can't. So what is the problem? When Web browsers were first introduced in the format that you are currently familiar with, they were fairly stripped down. Features, such as tables and frames, were not supported. High end multimedia capabilities weren't even considered. And to keep everything in reference on how fast things were changing ... we are talking about 1994. Since 1994, a lot of advancements have been made in Web browsers and how the interpret code. Unfortunately (from my viewpoint), browsers have also developed to the point that they will 'assume' some things ... and you know the ole saying about 'assume'. In other words, a browser will look at your code and if there are problems with it, continue to interpret things. Internet Explorer is the worse. A good example is that IE will interpret a .txt document and give the output an .html look. This can be a nice feature ... but what happens if I don't use IE ... which by the way, I always open everything first in Netscape. But a HTML document with errors may work in IE, but then produce an empty page in Netscape. Netscape has a tendency to stick more interpreting source code more closely. If there is a problem, it doesn't always 'fix' it. A good example ... one student's resume was completely underlined. As I read the STAIR ... yes, I do read them ... he was completely satisfied with his output. But according to his source code ... yes, I view all of your source code, too ... only parts were underlined. I then opened up the page in IE ... and what do you see, a nicely formatted resume. Bottomline ... there was still a problem with source code. So what do you do? Don't give up on IE. If that is the Web browser that you are familiar with and one that you use daily ... that's fine. But you should also consider opening it up in Netscape as a debugging tool. If you are using Netscape, I would also suggest opening it in IE. I had to learn the hard way. I was using IE for viewing my Java homework. I thought I was done and didn't work on it. When I arrived at lab, it didn't work on the Unix version of Netscape. Quickly fixed that ... then thought ... check Netscape on Windows ... didn't work there. Had some more fixing to do. (No, I don't expect you to worry about Unix browsers) Point is ... even today, I check all of my code on both IE an Netscape. One last thing ... Netscape also has a great debugging tool. If you are having problems, go to view - page source. If there is something wrong with the code that it really doesn't like, it will blink at you. It blinks in the area that it has problems with. It may not be obvious. Carefully read your code.
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